Up

"Damn you, Pixar, with your melancholy metaphors" was the status of a Facebook friend after she had seen the latest from what has continued to be the most innovative studio in Hollywood. That statement really gets to the grain as to why I love these movies so much. Yes, there is imagination to spare, fun characters, ingenious scenarios, but the idea that these entertainments are born from adult sensibilities with a childlike sense of wonder, that for all of the color and wow there are wounded souls telling bittersweet tales. These tales, with their heartwarming yet never calculated whimsy really touch the soul of this filmgoer.

UP tells the story of an elderly man who is about to be carted off to a nursing home. He still lives in a vintage house, the last in a neighborhood being bulldozed to make way for tanning and sushi palaces. The man, Mr. Carl Fredericks, was a helium balloon salesman his entire life, and this is an integral plot point, seeing as his ticket away from the confines of assisted living involves those balloons. Yes, he concocts a method with all of those old helium tanks to propel his house up and away from its foundation and towards no less than South America, to a magical place, a Shangri-La of sorts he and his late wife had always dreamt of reaching.

The first 15 minutes or so of UP, we see Carl's previous life, all the way from childhood when he met his eventual sweetie, Ellie, to her passing. Ellie and Carl were both aficiandoes of travel, specifically through airliner. They gawk in astonishment at the exploits of world traveler Charles Muntz, a great white hunter who frequents every corner of the globe to collect animal fossils. Both aspire to live such a life of adventure. It is never to be. In a sequence of absolute cinematic grandeur, we see a silent montage of Ellie and Carl's marital bliss, complete with all the ups and downs that accompany. This sequence is touching in ways that completely blindsighted me, especially when the couple makes a particularly heartbreakening discovery. We never hear a word during this entire sequence, one of the best I think I've seen in any movie.

UP continues as I described, with the addition of other characters on Carl's unusual journey. A series of complications drives the running time, amusing predicaments that mount to ultimately a very moving conclusion. But along the way, there are some hilarious bits. Like that Doberman who communicates in a very high register. Don't ask; just see it. Like other Pixar films, a liberal dose of humor, some slapstick, some very sly, infuses the essentially sober screenplay. Melancholy, like my friend stated. Several scenes are included to make quiet statements about loss, pressing on, prevailing over disability, mediocrity. Very mature themes that may or may not have flown square over the heads of our very vocal juvenile audience last Saturday afternoon. UP is another masterful film as told by an incredibly gifted group of insightful adolescents. Adolescents who matured enough to be thoughtful adults, yet never quite letting go of youthful exuberance, and hope.